Day Six: Day of Service at San Pedro in Limon

This morning we awoke bright and early at 6:15 and breakfast started 6:45. We then loaded into the bus and drove about 3 hours to a small church in a rural town. We were expecting to be tiling floors, but the floors were not ready to be tiled, so we painted the walls. We were also expecting a run down church, but arose to a brand new beautiful building. Although it was small, it accomplished its mission. Some of us also dug a hole for an electric post. We also met the very hospitable people of the town, including the church's deacon, Mrs. Mavis. She cooked us a great meal that was completely unplanned and was just an extremely nice lady, along with the rest of the people we met. The best part of the day was seeing the happiness in Mrs. Mavis's face when we gave her a new cross and hand woven collection basket. It's amazing that little things like a cross and collection basket can mean so much to a small church like the one we visited. Mrs. Mavis showed us how much you could do with so little, and how important a church can be to a community.

Thomas, 17

Some of my favorite highlights throughout the day are a little bit random. We stopped about an hour outside of the town where San Pedro is located for a bathroom break and to pick up a bag of ice. Along the way, past the rainforest, we saw several street vendors. Many of them were selling these little pink fruits with green urchin looking tendrils protruding from them. Tammy was raving about how fabulous these fruits were and that we had to stop and buy some. So when we got to the convenience store, Foy and Tammy bought several for everyone to try. They were so strange. You crack them open and slide the skin off revealing an opaque looking jelly fruit with a pit in the center. I tasted one and thought it was a little too strange for my taste. Not bad, but not something I would go out of my way to buy. Many of the girls were popping them like candy. Once we gorged ourselves on the fruits, we got back on the road to find San Pedro where we were serving for the day. Like Thomas said, we were expecting to paint AND tile, but found out that the building wasn't quite ready for that so we all took turns painting with the 8 or 10 paintbrushes and rollers we had. We were able to put about two or three coats of paint on before we left and the whole room was so much brighter. It was just a grey plaster when we started and was a bright white worship space when we left. During our time we also picked up trash along the front of the church by the railway and played a casual game of soccer with two little boys from across the street. It was a pretty fun day. On our way home we stopped for dinner at a little shopping area just outside of San Jose. We are all gearing up for our rest and relaxation days beginning tomorrow afternoon on the Pacific coast in an area called Manuel Antonio. Before we go there though we will have a service with the Bishop and see both of the schools the diocese sponsors in Barrio Cuba, a neighborhood in San Jose and in Heredia, the province to the North West. Thank you for all your prayers. Keep them coming!

Holly Bauer

(pictures are taking too long to load and I'm exhausted... I will load some tomorrow or when we return depending on our wifi situation in Manuel Antonio).

Day Five: Last day at "Little" Ascencion

This morning, I found it extremely difficult to wake up.  It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do!  I guess hard labor will do that to you.  Once I finally got up, I could smell the aroma of the amazing food our wonderful cooks had prepared for us.  The meals here have yet to disappoint.  When we finished our meal of eggs, fruit, and this really good bread, we prepared to leave for our final day at Little Ascencion.  My job this week at VBS was story crew.  I, along with Alice, Tim, and Emily, acted out the daily story.  When that finished, I would move along to whatever station needed my assistance.  Today's story was about the calming of the seas.  To go along with the story, we had fun snacks and crafts planned for the kids.  In snack, they made sailboats.  The boat was made of half of an apple.  The post was made out of a pretzel, and the sail was made out of cheese.  Pretty clever, don't ya think?!  In arts and crafts, the kids got their tye-dyed t-shirts from the day before, along with a bracelet. They also got to color.  It was pretty awesome!  The snacks and crafts for this week have been pretty amazing!  Following the usual activities of VBS, we put on a "carnival" for the kids.  We had a fishing station (curtain fishing of course!), tattoo station (with a professional tattoo artist and everything :)), bubbles, and just hanging out.  It was a little sad to see the kids go because I feel we have made such wonderful bonds with them even though we may speak a completely different language.  A meal was prepared for us after the kids departed.  As usual, it was phenomenal!  Once lunch was done, we got our work shoes on and made the transition into construction.  For the past two days, I have smashed concrete.  Which, might I add, is a very satisfying activity.  However, today, I decided to move to the rebar area with Holly.  Although it hurt my hands, it was great to meet such cool people.  The workers are so friendly and they love to listen to Holly and me sing.  Holly and I jammed out to "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction.  I believe Mrs. Foy even got a video of our jam session.  Holly and I continued our hard work until the close of business at 4.  We made the trek back to the Diocesan House and everyone raced to make it to the showers as soon as possible.  We all relaxed until we left the house again at 6:30.  We left to go to a dinner hosted at our missionary Eduardo Monzon's house.  That was the BEST chicken pie I have ever had.  (Sorry, Mom)  We all had fun just talking to some of the local people.  After dinner, they showed us the future plans for the church we have been working on.  They have some amazing dreams.  I can NOT wait to see what everything turns out to look like.  I am off to bed because we have an early morning in store for us.

Jackson Massey, 16

Day Four: "How to Pray"

   After our first day of work at Little Ascension the majority of our group was finally blessed with a good nights sleep.  The pre-breakfast chatter consisted primarily of muscle aches, the previous nights latin dance marathon and how good the coffee is in Costa Rica.  (For all you coffee fans, it's good!) A few of us played with Bisbo, the Spanish speaking golden retriever, while others began preparations for VBS.  Breakfast was eggs, rice, refried beans, and amazing fresh fruit. After we devoured everything on our plates, we piled onto our mini-bus. Emerging from rush hour traffic, we were dropped off at the church.  The church grounds resembled a set from the latest post-apocalyptic thriller, which is good because our duties on the work site is demolition.  The VBS songs were picked out on guitar, the bible stories were reviewed, the Tang was mixed and the tie-dye area was prepped. We manned our battle stations and waited a group of 23 joyful children to arrive from the community.

   In a booming voice, Father Eduardo led the group in a Spanish / English rendition of He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. All the kids sang their hearts out while following Alice's animated hand motions. Our bible story was about Prayer and the story team acted out the story for the kids.  Alice, Jackson, and Tim were very convincing.  We broke into groups for tie-dying, snacking, and Four-squaring. We also taught the kids to play the "Egg, Chicken, Dinosaur" game and it was a huge hit.

   Lunch was hamburgers and chips prepared by Father Edurado's kind wife Lynette and other church parishioners. The whole team will agree that we have been feed very well.

   The deconstruction lasted from say 12:30 to 4:00. We continued breaking up the slab foundations of a building and driveway.  With our choice of large crow bars, hand welded wedges, pick axes, shovels and sledge hammers we swung away. It was amazing to see our team working together to unearth huge pieces of concrete. As the rubble pile grew, a large truck backed up to collect the broken concrete. One of the workmen commented that he had never seen a blond girl work so hard referring to our one-in-a-million Elizabeth. On the other side of the courtyard, a group was bending rebar for the new foundation. The work crew are so helpful and especially patient with us since communication is some times challenging.  

   As we returned to the Diocesan House, we all settled in for a delicious dinner prepared by the wonderful staff. They are all so nice and accommodating to us. We have decided to learn Spanish just so we can talk to Laura because she is so cheerful. While we enjoyed our dinner, the VBS tie-dye shirts were drying on the clotheslines. After dinner we overheard songs from the kitchen from the staff, while we played card games. Others decided to watch the Costa Rica soccer game at a local restaurant and absorb the local culture.

   We are looking forward to our last day of VBS and demolition a Little Ascension. Keep us in your prayers, especially all our sore muscles.

-Jeff and Emily Thomas

Day Three: "Camina con Jesus"

This morning everyone was excited to start the first day of our mission. After breakfast since we were a little short on time, we said a quick prayer as we were loading the bus, then we were off. We arrived at Little Ascension and immediately started setting up for the day. My job was to paint the words "Camina con Jesus" on a big white sheet. These words mean "Walk with Jesus," which is our theme for the whole week. While I was painting, everyone else was busy setting up the arts and crafts, snack, and game stations.      The children started to arrive around 10am. The ages of the kids ranged from three to sixteen.  When all of the children had arrived, Kristen who is our guide, gave a short introduction and we all went around and said our names. After that, Father Eduardo and Jeff taught them "Jesus Loves Me." Father Eduardo doesn't speak English very well but he is very entertaining with the kids and they had a lot of fun singing! After we sang Jesus Loves Me about five times, Jackson Massey, Alice McGowin, and Tim Vaught put on a skit that went along to the story we read to them. It was the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet which also goes along perfectly with our theme! For the first activity we had the children line up and take off their shoes. Outside we laid the big sheet with "Camina con Jesus" written on it and the kids stepped in paint and walked across the sheet. Earlier, we had filled up a baby pool with water and soap, so after they walked across the sheet we washed their feet in the pool. Finally, after everyone had finished, we split the children into groups by ages. I had the youngest group and it was three little girls. Their names are Krystell, Florella, and Hillary. Florella was adorable and only three years old. She missed her mama so she cried almost the whole time. I carried her around to each of our rotations. For games we played duck, duck, goose and red light, green light or "rojo luz, verde luz." Then we moved on to arts and crafts where we made "stained glass" crosses with contact paper and tissue paper. Florella loved ripping up the tissue paper and that was the only time I saw her smile. In snack we made caterpillars with bananas, peanut butter, and pretzels. It was kind of hard understanding the little children, but I could understand some simple words. When all the children left, I could tell they had fun because the little ones came up to me and gave me hugs, which was really cute! When all of the kids left, we cleaned up then had lunch. Around 1 we started the construction work. There were different jobs to do and some were a lot harder than others. The guys in the group mainly stuck to breaking the concrete all the way down to the earth beneath it. The girls were mostly working with rebar and other metalwork. I moved around from the concrete to the metal. As time went on, the concrete workers found easier and smarter ways that required less energy to break up the concrete. By four o'clock we could tell a huge difference. There is a big area where we took up the concrete and a giant rubble pile! I felt really good about how much work we all did together, especially since there was a big difference. We were all sooo dirty, gross, and sore afterwards. When we got back to the diocesan house, we learned that a latin dance class had been set up for us. I was excited but I wasn't sure if I could make it because I was so tired! As we started learning some moves it felt exactly like a zumba class, and we were all soon very sweaty. Some of the dances we learned were the Cha Cha, the Salsa, a Dominican dance, and a traditional Costa Rican dance. At the end of the hour long class, Alice, Virginia Reed, and I taught the instructor a dance called the Wobble, which is very popular in America. Dinner was served shortly after our dance class was over and it was really good. After dinner we had compline and talked about what is happening tomorrow. I can't wait for tomorrow!!

-Elizabeth McGowin, 16

Day Two: Little Ascencion meets Big Ascension

The first full day of the Church of the Ascension's mission trip in Costa Rica was terrific. I woke up early and Christopher Turner and I began by exploring the area around the Iglesia Episcopal Diocesan House here in the capital, San Jose. We later returned to join the rest of the group for a wonderful breakfast provided by the lively staff at the Diocesan House. Afterwards we left by bus to join the congregation of the Little Ascension for a Sunday morning service. The clergy of the Little Ascension were more than welcoming as we arrived slightly early. As the congregation began filing in, I really enjoyed the chance to practice my Spanish skills as warm welcoming and introduction proceeded. The service started,  and to my surprise it was exactly like a regular service at the Ascension,  however just in another location and in Spanish instead of English.  Father Eduardo preached a lively sermon about the importance of the congregation providing service, physically, mentally, and spiritually, to the word of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Immediately following the end of the service, more friendship was shared between the missioners and the Little Ascension congregation as many photographs were taken. Having the chance to practice what I have learned in my Spanish studies in order to converse and hear the word of the Lord confirmed the reason I decided to make this trip. We then had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant and spent the afternoon doing some sight seeing. San Jose is a lively city filled with culture. We then had dinner and spent the evening preparing for Bible School and construction work for the church. We are all looking forward to meeting todos los niños en la mañana, and are thankful for the chance to be here making a difference.

-Charlie Hudgens, 23

Success: We have arrived!

   The day started off with a whole lot of excitement muddied by the third day of rain in a row in Montgomery. A crew of Ascension parishioners and the mission team gathered outside of the church under the covered portico to pack the bus and pray together before departing to Atlanta. Our send-off team led us in an Outreach and Mission litany with the reoccurring response of "We will love like Jesus loved" and that will be our goal this week in San Jose. But before we can do that we had to make the trek from Montgomery to Atlanta then Atlanta to San Jose. And so we were off right on schedule.
   About forty-five minutes outside of Atlanta we made a pitstop to top off the gas in the bus and grab a snack for our ever-growing young people. There was a brief moment of "oh-no, what will we do" when the Ascension bus wouldn't start, but luckily jumper cables and Chip's car did the trick and we were off again! I was very thankful for the extra hour I built into our itinerary for travel in case of an emergency like the one we came close to experiencing.
   Bill Garrett, our faithful driver, dropped us off at the newly constructed international departure gates where we encountered a bit of confusion. We approached the group check-in counter where no employees were standing. I got the attention of an employee on the other side of the counter who told us to just go to the opposite direction where we should get in any line. So we got in a line when a different employee approached us and asked why we were in that line and I told him that we had been sent there by the other guy and lucky for us this employee was very helpful. He got us started at the kiosk check-in and through to baggage drop-off. It was a bit of a pain that we had to do it that way since a separate group came in about fifteen minutes after us wearing matching Costa Rica mission shirts and they got through the group check-in with no problem putting them ahead of us in the security line. But again, I was thankful for the extra time I built in to the travels. Maybe next time we will wearing neon pink Costa Rica Mission shirts, or dye our hair (that was Tim's suggestion).
   Finally, we all made it through security without a hitch and located our terminal, which only changed once in the period of time we spent there! A little under half of us did not have a proper seat assignment, so we got that all squared away and were finally all ready to board the plane. I call it a miracle that we made it to this point without losing anyone! Keeping up with 18 people isn't as easy as it might seem.
   Other than the 45 minute- 1 hour delay on the runway due to weather we had a pretty uneventful flight. It was probably one of the loudest flights I've ever been on with so many groups all split up over the cabin and one group of probably 25 children ages 12 and under in the middle of the plane, but overall it was bearable. In my book an uneventful flight is a great flight! We even got a small little dinner on board- so no complaints on that.
   After making it through customs and gathering all of our bags we found our greeters, Kristen, Gray and Clarence. Kristen is our in-country liaison who has been doing the brunt of the work planning our mission experience. Clarence is an additional team member who will be helping on site, and Gray is just here for the weekend working on a garden here at the diocesan house. They directed us to our bus which took us the 15 minute ride over to the diocesan house, where we all are currently.
   We took a few minutes to have a snack and settle into our new home for the next 5 days before we had a short group brief on what to expect in the morning and our evening devotion. The plan for tomorrow is to have breakfast here at 8:30 a.m. prepared by the cooks- if it is anything like what Jeff and I had on our previous trip in November, it will be a huge and delicious spread. At 10 a.m. we will hop on our bus to go to "Little" Ascencion where we will be hosting VBS and doing construction this week. We will attend their Sunday morning Eucharist with them tomorrow which I am very excited about! It will be an opportunity to introduce ourselves and begin building our relationship with this parish again.
   After church we are going directly to downtown San Jose to have lunch and go to the artisan market where we can purchase any souvenirs we might want. The afternoon will be spent at Walmart getting any last minute purchases we might need for VBS or construction this week. It should be a pretty fun and eventful day tomorrow! Maybe one of the other mission team members can post from their perspective tomorrow night. Until then, buenos noches!

Muy Bien.
Adios, amigos.
Pax.

Love,
Holly

Ascension's Costa Rica Mission Team on the bus to the Diocesan House- July 6, 2013.

Pray for our Missionaries

Thanksgiving: For the Diversity of Races and Cultures
O God, who created all peoples in your image, we thank you for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in this world. Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. -Book of Common Prayer, pg. 840.

Prayer: For Travelers
O God, our heavenly Father, whose glory fills the whole creation, and whose presence we find wherever we go: Preserve those who travel, in particular, Scott Bamman, Holly Bauer, Tadd Bevan, Chip Broadfoot, Tammy Eskridge, Thomas Eskridge, Virginia Reed Eskridge, Karla Hodges, Charlie Hudgens, Benton Hughes, Jackson Massey, Alice McGowin, Elizabeth McGowin, Foy McGowin, Emily Thomas, Jeff Thomas, Christopher Turner and Tim Vaught; Preserve them with your loving care; protect them from every danger; and bring them in safety to their journey's end through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. - Book of Common Prayer, pg. 831.

Our 2013 Costa Rica Mission Team
Scott Bamman
Holly Bauer
Tadd Bevan
Chip Broadfoot +
Tammy Eskridge
Thomas Eskridge (youth)
Virginia Reed Eskridge (youth)
Karla Hodges
Charlie Hudgens
Benton Hughes (youth)
Jackson Massey (youth)
Alice McGowin (youth)
Elizabeth McGowin (youth)
Foy McGowin
Emily Thomas
Jeff Thomas
Christopher Turner
Tim Vaught

Anxious Preparation

   As things are finally taking shape, the reality of this mission experience is slowly beginning to sink in. I might ought to speed up the process of reality as the trip is only three days away! It seems like yesterday that Jeff Thomas and I made the initial scouting trip to seek out the best mission opportunities for our parish. In fact, it was nearly nine months ago! We have come such a long way since that trip.
   At this point we have secured 18 youth and adult missioners and with the help of our parish, family, and friends, we have fundraised enough money to cover this incredible mission. While we are in Costa Rica we will be working on several different projects. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we will spend our mornings hosting Vacation Bible School for 25 children ages 6-11 from the Episcopal Church of the Ascencion in San Jose and the surrounding neighborhood, and our afternoons will be spent reconstructing a new worship space for the church. This is a particularly special project because of our past connections to "Little" Ascencion. Nearly 17 years ago a group of our youth went to this exact church to renovate the interior of the original worship space. Now this many years later, Ascencion has outgrown their original building and we are going back to do our part in building a new worship space! It seems like the beginning of a beautiful reunion story to me.
   Beyond the work we will be doing the first part of the week in San Jose, we will also be spending all day Thursday at a little church called San Pedro situated on the railway about two hours outside of San Jose in the Limon Province. When Jeff and I did our scouting trip, this particular church really stuck with us. The priest, Madre Mavis, was such a kind-hearted woman as she lovingly showed us her humble church building. San Pedro has a sweet story of determination and community about it. The building itself isn't anything spectacular, made of cinder blocks and a tin roof, but the spirit of the people are what make the ordinary building extraordinary. Madre Mavis had a tree cut down, sold part of it and used the other part as lumber to construct the roof. The earnings from the sold half were used to purchase the tin that cover the wood supports. The roof now allows them to meet rain or shine. It is such a simple church, but we knew that we wanted to be a part of their story. So Thursday will be our opportunity. We will be tiling and painting before we host a small reception to break bread with our brothers and sisters in the neighborhood.
   We will be returning to San Jose on Thursday night so that Friday morning we can take a tour of the schools the Diocese of Costa Rica sponsors, both in Barrio Cuba and Heredia. From there we will drive out to Manuel Antonio on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica where we will begin a day and a half of rest and relaxation.
   This mission experience has only been made possible with the financial support, prayers and love from our parish family. My hope is that all three of these means will continue as we carry out our journey in Costa Rica. Any additional financial contributions are welcome even while we are in Costa Rica as all monies will be donated to the project costs for both San Pedro and Ascencion. All prayers and love are welcome as we will need as many and much as we can get. If you would like to pray for our missionaries by name, a list will be provided in a separate post.
   I am so excited to see how God uses each one of us and our many gifts and talents to carry out his work in Costa Rica.

Agape,
Holly